Logan's Run (BD)

In hindsight, this movie can be credited as one of the first cyberpunk movies ever made, and it's also a testament of how rigid the rating system for movies has become at present. Logan's Run was rated PG back in 1976 and includes nudity (almost full-frontal, no less) from Jenny Agutter in one scene, plus the clothes she wears are pretty much transparent throughout; you'd never see that in one of today's PG-rated films. The next few paragraphs contain spoilers of the plot, so for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to skip over. I've never read the novel it's based on, but the premise of the movie is pretty unique, considering. About 300 years in the future, the whole of civilization is contained inside one huge domed city, with the ruins surrounding it the result of some apocalyptic event. Life inside the city is utopic. There are no worries beyond choosing what you're going to do with your free time. There are drugs. There's sex with no commitment (indeed, any kind of emotional attachment is looked on as an aberration). There's getting a different face at the local New You bodysculpting kiosk. Everything is provided for you by the computer mainframe that runs the city. There is no crime, save one. Running. You see, the price for this kind of carefree existence is that your life ends when you turn thirty. In an effort to maintain population control, the mainframe has conditioned people to accept their thirtieth birthday as 'Lastday' and present themselves for a special celebration called Carousel where they 'renew' and start life over. People know when their time arrives when a small crystal imbedded in the palm of their hand begins flashing. Certain individuals rebel against this and they've formed an underground movement with the ankh (the ancient Egyptian symbol of eternal life) as their icon. They don't believe in the myth of Carousel and they choose to run instead. The Sandmen, the only real police force the city has, exist specifically to hunt these Runners down and eliminate them. The main character of the movie is Logan 5, a Sandman, who is perfectly content with his job hunting Runners with his friend, until he meets up with Jessica 6, played by Jenny Agutter, who has one of the underground's ankhs in her possession. The mainframe then chooses him to infiltrate the underground movement and eliminate it from the inside. The incentive it gives him is by taking away his remaining time, forcibly turning him into a Runner. He begins to question everything he's been taught to believe after teaming up with Agutter's character to escape the city. Through their journey, being pursued all the while by Logan's Sandman friend, they discover a rather chilling side to both the city itself and the society within it. Outside the city they come across something they've never witnessed before, a man who's lived long enough to be in his dotage (played convincingly by Peter Ustinov of 'Spartacus' fame). They bring him back to the city, where Logan is captured and brought before the mainframe computer for questioning. The computer cannot reconcile his answers with the information it possesses and self destructs. Logan then reveals the Old Man to the rest of society, letting them know they don't have to die. People are then free to make their own decisions and live life as they see fit. End of story. END OF SPOILER This movie was one of the first to portray the dangers of what civilization could become. At first glance, everything might seem to be bliss, but the degree to which everything has become impersonalized and controlled and how de-valued the individual has become in the story is really rather frightening. Look at society today. Companies now refer to us as 'human resources' rather than personnel, willing to cut 25,000 jobs here and 50,000 jobs there, calling it a 'business decision' and leaving many people on the verge of homelessness. Political correctness is currently all the rage. Computers are taking a much more prominent role in our personal lives than ever before. With our current 'entitlement' attitude, we pretty much insist on having everything set before us on a silver platter and complain LOUDLY when it isn't. Don't think. Exist. We are now SO content to let others handle our personal responsibilities that Logan's Run has almost a prophetic air to it. The one difference is that our lives don't currently have a time limit. Yet... This vision alone puts it up there as one of the classics of the day. I'm also not taking off any marks for the 1970s special effects. They may seem incredibly dated today, but they were considered good at the time. They just didn't have access to CGI. Also, the dialogue and the acting were par for the course for the time period so I'm giving that high marks, too. The movie was also popular enough to spawn a short-lived television series. The series was rather more cinematic than the movie in scope, considering some of the creatures the trio of adventurers comes across, but it was still entertaining in its own way. All in all, Logan's Run was a movie with a VERY powerful message behind it, and it is one worth listening to. Keep an open mind and you might enjoy it. And before you think of jumping the gun and trashing Logan's Run because it WAS a cheesy 1976 sci-fi flick, movie producer Joel Silver likes this show enough to be pushing to direct a new version of it. Two thumbs up.

Great science fiction movie, and a great addition to my collection.

Loved this movie as a kid and still enjoy it today

I like Logan's Run. more because of sentimental values really, but nonetheless a good film in itself. Story of a community ruled under a "dome" by specific rules and based in the future in the year 2274, very much far ahead that realistically I hope we make it that long. This film was released in 1976 and it did good when it first came out winning two Oscars at the time. It is a "sci-fi" movie which in 1976 looked pretty good then, but when you watch it, you need to make sure you don't compare the quality of the special effects with the technology that exists today so many years, so if you are able to do you'll enjoy, is a classic on its own merits. As I said every one in earth lived together under a dome and no one could get older than at the age of 30, which will then become the time for that person to be executed thru a specific way they had how to go about it. In fact when they were called upon to report once they became 30 years old, they reported without any complaints as this was the only kind of world they ever knew, till they discover different later, but I will let you find that out yourself when you see it. Michael York was the main character whom plays the role of some "law enforcement" enforcing the rules among one of the main ones is to make sure those that thought about escaping the dome known as '"runner", he was in charge of stopping them. This one also was co-starred by Farah Fawcett-Majors during her early acting career. The joy of the whole movie I thought of it to be at best when Peter Ustinov, classic actor, comes into the picture laying a specific role that would amaze you as well as it amazed them "runners" those that made it, of course.

This would be a good movie to remake and upgrade, but who is the new Ustinov?! He is my favorite character! Great revisit to childhood.

Ah, 1975. Black Sabbath releases "Sabotage." Saigon falls. (Incidentally, this also just happens to be the year of my birth.) Finally, Michael Anderson's sci-fi epic "Logan's Run" is filmed (primarily on location in Dallas, Texas), though the film would see release the following summer, just in time for the bicentennial. I first saw this movie in a showing on WTBS when I was in high school. That was the better part of 20 years ago, and until I recently bought the DVD, I had not seen it since. I am happy to report that this film, now nearly 35 years old (like me, sigh), has aged remarkably well. It seems to be heavily influenced by classic '60s "Star Trek," but that was a show so far ahead of its time as to be timeless, and so is "Logan's Run." It has all the basic qualities of "Trek" -- it is beautiful to look at, and seeing it on the print I viewed it on DVD is especially revealing. It possesses that lustrous technicolor image quality that you just don't see in movies anymore. And it presents sights that you just didn't see in motion pictures up to that point in the pre-"Star Wars" era. This was back at a time when all special effects had to be manually crafted from scratch, whereas today's video game like computer generated effects can have a less imaginative and more sterile quality to them. It came as no surprise that this film won a special Academy award for these very visual effects that I refer to. Not only are the special effects beautiful to look at, but just like vintage "Star Trek," it presents legions of young, gorgeous women in extremely short skirts (and sometimes much less), not the least of which is then 22-year-old British actress Jenny Agutter, co-starring as Jessica 6. Here she was a mesmerisingly beautiful girl, and her quaint English charm and mannerisms don't hurt a bit. My eyes were glued to the screen every moment she was on. Sci-fi movies were not too common during the first half of the '70s, and "Logan's Run" was truly revolutionary, and while influenced by "Trek" it proved to serve as an influence for a fair share of pictures of its own in the years to follow. For the sets, 1980's "Flash Gordon" comes to mind. And I've never heard this stated as such, but I think that some plot points from "Logan's Run" would serve as an influence to John Carpenter for his 1981 futuristic sci-fi actioner "Escape From New York" (another favorite of mine). The very fact that Logan (Michael York) will cease to exist if he doesn't complete his mission recalls Snake Plisskin's essential plight in "Escape." Finally, the restricted quadrant that the two leads enter early on in "Logan's Run," which is actually an abandoned cathedral, reminds me of Carpenter's Manhattan Island of the near future in "Escape," as they both are crumbling areas of lawlessness away from civilization, filled with roaming bloodthirsty criminals (in Carpenter's film they were dubbed "the Crazies"). All in all, with its amazing effects, great acting and sense of fun and adventure, "Logan's Run" is a classic through and through and comes highly recommended to any fans of the old "Star Trek" or any other vintage sci-fi.

First off let me just say that I do like this movie. In fact i remember where & when I saw it while in the movie theatre, Now if your of a certain age then you have this this memory as well. When Logan's Run first came out in 1976 it was state of the art. and through the years that when I'd see it on cable or the SciFi channel it still looked good as well. But here now that is is 2012 and close to its 40 anniversary, Logan's Run is starting to show its age badly. When I was originally looking for a copy of this DVD i was shocked to find out that 3 different versions of it are still available. The edition you see here before you is the latest one and its the one I recommend that you pick up as well because it has the latest in film and sound quality. If you do have the choice and most times you don"t, always go with the latest, most recent edition possible. So my quibbling isn't with the either the film or sound quality as both are top notch its the fact there's been a lot of progress in film special effects the past 30 years or so and unfortunately because of that this film is acquiring a "dated" look about it. The music & sound effects are especially amaturish when viewed in today's CGI computer graphics glasses. If you can look at this movie with all the wonder and wide eyed enthusiasm that you had all those years ago then you wont be disappointed. But if you've been watching a steady diet of the latest & greatest Sci Fi movies recently your forgiveness and tolerance for such things will be tested. This is one movie that I would love to see be remade using today's technology FYI: And it looks like this may happen sooner rather then later. According to the website Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB), actors Ryan Gossling & Rose Bryne have been linked to this movie remake project. I just hope this new version is faithful to the original. Logan's Run is definitely a movie that deserves to be remade the right way using all the latest & greatest special effects available. After all the first one was made with this in mind and this one should be approached the same way as well. Enjoy!

Still good entertainment

Für ein siebziger Jahre Film ist die Handlung sehr überzeugend und aktueller denn je

Great classic film

parfait

Ener der besten Oldy-Filme

Great film five stars